STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991)

For some, the soundtrack for STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY might remind them of the movie's story and characters or of discovering the music of composer Cliff Eidelman.  For me, it is forever linked with my first petty crime.  The notable day occurred during December 1991, when I attended my first Star Trek convention.  It was there that I committed my first (and last?) act of (unintentional) shoplifting.  I'm unsure if this is a standard hazard at Trek conventions (probably is), as I imagine most fans think they represent the stalwart, honest qualities displayed by our star-faring heroes.  Nevertheless, at least my face didn't end up on convention watch lists in later years.  

It was my freshman year at Guilford College, in Greensboro, N.C.  This was several hours drive from my parents, which provided space for learning to get my own bearings both socially and scholastically in that first year.  There were days of loneliness, sometimes a full weekend, alternated with sequences of total and sudden social immersion.  In hindsight, I surprisingly enjoyed all of it, mainly due to that newfound sense of independence, of steering my own ship so to speak, without having to alert the boss.  A lonely day was still a day whose direction I could determine, though really it was my inability to voluntarily reach out to people that created that loneliness.  I missed my family greatly, especially my younger sister Meri, but realized this important opportunity to define my own time, outside of class that is. It was a period when youth can feel paroled from parental guidance and discover that every hour could offer up something unique, something strange or something soul-shaking.  Any person encountered in class or on campus seemed to hold potential for such significance.   

Guilford is a small, liberal, Quaker-founded college and one might make the assumption that everyone on campus would be a STAR TREK nerd, but I wound up finding my new comrades among the theater folk and choir groups.  They were a far cry from the eight guys I roomed with in the dorm.  We shared a four room suite with one, two-stall bathroom and I needed to quickly grow accustomed to less privacy, more noise and a roommate who once drank so much that I woke to find him vomiting right next to my bed.  That specific incident was never verbally acknowledged between us, but the large note I left instructing him to clean it up was what he used for that very task.  I don't think he much liked notes telling him to clean up.  The upside to the living situation was that at least I was able to use his television on Saturday evenings to catch episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

In perusing the local paper, I saw the advertised STAR TREK convention scheduled right there in town, with special guests from the movies and THE NEXT GENERATION.  It became a moral imperative that I attend yet I had no car during that freshman year, something which probably ensured I wouldn't be taking any potential dates off-campus, unfortunately.  Although none of my new friends could join me, one graciously offered to drive me both there and back.  And in the days prior to world-wide cell phone saturation, one had to strictly abide by the appointed time of retrieval.  Of course, this was akin to a gawky teen being dropped off at the movies by a parent, promising to wait outside later for pick-up, but it mattered little to me.  I was about to dive into a civic center filled to the brim with STAR TREK.

The first great thing about the convention was standing in line.  Weird, perhaps, but what made it notable was the fact that I could turn and talk about Trek to either person in front or behind me, confident that I wouldn't be met with quizzical stares.  Questions about favorite episodes, movies, what happened on THE NEXT GENERATION last week were all fair game.  A fan could feel safe in that environment, which I am sure is one reason why the conventions have persisted to this day. Once inside the hall, it was overwhelming seeing the number of people, both in and out of costumes, and the number of dealers' tables to peruse.  All those years when it was only Meri and I and our imaginations, creating our own adventures, suddenly didn't seem so isolated.  It was as if we'd carried on just one conversation which actually belonged to a much larger party. 

I started making the rounds.  My nerves kept me from chatting anyone up initially, so I zeroed in on those dealers tables, which displayed rare books, magazines, CDs & tapes, pins, posters and even bootleg videos, many items I'd heard read about years prior.  I had to be judicious about what I might buy that day as cash in my wallet was limited and I was too practical to max out my one credit card.    I spied the cassette of STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY and eagerly picked it up to examine the track list.  The composer for the movie, Cliff Eidelman, was unknown to me so I had no clue what the music might sound like. 

I fully intended to hand that dealer cash for the soundtrack.  I held onto the cassette as I slowly continued examining other items on the table, began checking out the neighboring table and then I found myself on the other side of the convention.  With the cassette still in hand and the cash still in my wallet.  Yep, I shoplifted it.  No one seemed to notice, surprisingly.  I was a pretty honest kid, always trying to stick close to the rules, not makes waves and not attract attention for the wrong reasons.  Yet I oddly labored over whether to return to pay and the more time passed, the less I felt inclined.  If only the ghostly visage of Captain Picard sternly shaking his head in disappointment had appeared, then I might have made the morally right choice.  Thankfully, this little incident didn't ignite some spark for further misdemeanors.

The day progressed, the special guests spoke and held signings.  The guests were Robin Curtis, who co-starred in the third and fourth STAR TREK films, and Denise Crosby, who had a prominent role as Tasha Yar during the first season of THE NEXT GENERATION.  Normally when fans wait in line for a star's signature, it's an 8x10 glossy costing $25 which they offer up for that person's "John Hancock".   In this scenario, with no such items in my possession, I wound up asking Ms. Curtis to sign the liner notes of my stolen STAR TREK VI cassette and Ms. Crosby to sign the Wil Wheaton postcard I bought for two dollars.   I still shake my head at how annoyingly lame this must have appeared to them both.  It would be like asking current James Bond actor Daniel Craig to the sign the poster for Roger Moore's OCTOPUSSY.  Talk about an insult to an actor, especially poor Denise Crosby, whose character had been mercilessly killed off the show in season one and was now putting ink to a picture of Wil Wheaton, who's "Wesley Crusher" was still alive and kicking on the Enterprise.  Nevertheless, I cheerfully chatted them up, even conveying to Ms. Curtis how I thought it was a shame her character wasn't included in the new movie.   I'm stubbornly hopeful that mine wasn't the most embarrassing incident from convention, but star-signed shoplifted soundtrack is weird enough.

So once the convention wrapped, my friends cruised by to get me and that evening all of us, plus our theater class professor, took in STAR TREK VI at the nearby cineplex.  Being joined at the movies by a professor didn't seem odd behavior at Guilford, the theater group there was a pretty close, and for me, having hung out often with my high school theater teachers, it felt like old times.  It wrapped up that day perfectly and was a marvelous movie-going experience to boot.  The audience laughed at all the jokes, cheered the highlights and our professor relished Christopher Plummer's scenery-chewing performance and Shakespeare-quoting.   Cliff Eidelman's music was an amazing, energizing component, from the turbulent main title, the ebullient, new theme for the Enterprise, to the kinetic, climactic battle sequence.  I was glad to already have a copy of that score to enjoy on its own, even if I became an unknowing artful dodger in the process. 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Ja1Jgvmkc